5 Key Components To Consider Before Hiring An Offshore Developer

When businesses want a software product made for them, they look for ways to save additional costs, increase operational capacity, and free their in-house teams (if any) to work on more crucial and confidential tasks.

So, What do businesses do?

As per the latest survey, 59 percent of the businesses choose software outsourcing for cost-cutting. And 31 percent of the companies consider hiring an offshore developer because it helps in enhancing service quality.

Another big question here is

How do businesses choose offshore software development companies?

Well, hiring dedicated software developers may seem like kids play at first, but when you do a reality check, it turns out it is quite challenging. And which is why we are here. This post will guide you by hiring an offshore development team for your next big project.

5 Things to consider while hiring an offshore developer.

Geographical Location:

Before just starting with your offshore software development search, here is a bit of homework you ought to do. You need to carefully define the geography in which you would like to search. This is because the company you outsourcing must be located in a country with world-class infrastructures for delivering the services you seek.

You must always go to a country that has an existing and thriving business relationship with your state. This also indicates that your offshore development partner is likely to have a cultural orientation about your country's business orientations. Trust me; it is a huge advantage.

We will also not deny that communication is essential, and English is pretty much the language of international business dealings, so you must check the country's English proficiency before hiring offshore developers.

• India tops the global outsourcing destination list for all sorts of IT requirements. Here are a few stats to support my statement.
• India being the top choice globally, the Indian IT and services market is predicted to expand by $14.3 billion by the end of 2020.
• In the financial year 2019, the software development   companies in India generated export revenue of 126 billion USD from IT outsourcing. 

In Tholons' Services Globalizations Report 2019, India was at the top of the digital nations' list. The score breakup, on a total of 1, is as follows:

• For talent, skill, and quality: 0.91
• For cost and infrastructure: 0.80
• For business catalyst: 0.79    
• And for digital innovation: 0.72

Company's stability and reliability:

Once you have chosen the country, you need to research the best software outsourcing companies in that country. For this, you must go through the company's profile before you make any decision.

We also recommend you to partner with a web development company rather than partnering with a freelancer. This is because companies are more reliable and experienced.

Use the following checklist to measure a software outsourcing company's reliability and stability:

• You must check the annual financial statements of at least three consecutive years to check for the company's growth profile.
• You must also check the company's financial health by exploring the debt/equity ratio.
• Dig in to know for how long the company has been in the business.
• Scrutinize the company's website carefully. You can also look for customer reviews.
• After you begin the initial communications, you can also ask for customer references. Try getting the contacts of the customers so that you can speak to them directly.
• Study the company's cyber-security commitment and history. Who would want to risk the security of their software?

Cost Efficiency:

As discussed above, cost-cutting is the primary reason why businesses outsource their projects; hence you need to focus on this point very much. Calculation of how much cost you will be able to save is an important point. If you choose the right software outsourcing company in India, you may save up to 60% development cost.

However, cost efficiency needs to balance expenses and quality. Compromising the product quality to cut cost is never a good idea.

We have come up with the following two tables:

The first table represents the average hourly rate of hiring developers across popular offshoring destinations.

(source)

And the second one represents a more detailed breakdown of the average hourly rates for developers. You must keep in mind that a full-time employee in the second table means a dedicated offshore team and not the in-house developers.

(source)

Put your candidates to the test:

All the software outsourcing vendors will have their pros and cons. Nevertheless, there are a bunch of questions that you can ask during an initial phone conversation to make sure a potential partner is an excellent cultural, philosophical, and methodological fit for your project.

The questions are as follows:

Q1- What is your approach for software development?

A1- Look for words like Agile, SCRUM, DevOps, MVP, short sprints, quick releases, constant communication, and any others you find essential.

Q2- How were your previous experiences while working on software outsourcing projects?

A2- Trying to understand the company's various clients and how their review on their services was will be valuable for you. You can request at least two to three references, but remember never to risk being the vendor's first client.

Q3- What are the most critical known risks in a software-outsourcing relationship, and how do you manage/resolve them?

A3- Discuss the real experiences of problems faced by the software-outsourcing vendor and solutions they came up with. It will give you an idea about their logical approaches.

Q4- What are your strengths as a company versus your competitors? 

A4- Here, you can ask a business development representative to be present for the call and help you walk through the benefits of choosing their company over their competitors. Ask them every detail about their strategies, hidden charges, terms and conditions, and safety of your idea with their company.

Knowledge of the industry:

Just as a prior idea about your country's business strategies is a must check, similarly, the industry knowledge is also a must checkpoint while you hire offshore developers.

Different industries have different needs, so you must check if the software development company has experience working in your industry before.

Say, for instance, your business belongs to the eCommerce industry, so you can ask whether the offshore software development company you have chosen for your mobile app development knows this industry or not.

Though it is not mandatory but has knowledge about your industry, it will serve as an advantage.

What are the challenges while hiring offshore developers?

Time zone difference:

If the offshore team is located in a different time zone than yours, it will be quite challenging for you to work things out. You must also see if they can synchronize according to your time or not. It will smoothen out jobs for both of you.

Lack of face to face interactions:

As we know, different teams are working on one project, and as you have only hired offshore developers, possibilities are that the in-house teams will do the testing. Here occurs a chance that communication can be a barrier between the in-house team and offshore developers.

There are two possible solutions to this. You can visit the team from time to time and interact with them. Or keep a weekly video conference to increase interaction among the team members.

Too many offshore development services:

The abundance of software outsourcing companies in different geographical locations brings both benefits and confusion hand in hand. It becomes challenging for you to hire indian  developers, but if you follow the above key points, you will possibly end up hiring best in class web and app developers in India for your business.

Pro-tip:

Finally, ensure that the team you have chosen satisfy the following:

• Has experience working with similar types of projects.
• Regularly conducts brainstorming sessions with you for new ideas.
• Are you comfortable putting forward your questions or queries?
• Promise on-time delivery
• Sign strict a non-disclosure agreement
• Have a flexible engagement model
• And follows Agile or DevOps methodologies.

Final Words

As the trend of offshore software development continues to rise, the need for expert and professional offshore developers has also increased. And for some, working with the virtual team always proves to be successful.

However, you need to define your requirements and expectations first and create a plan of action to overcome the challenges that can become the roadblocks. For help, you must get in touch only with the top offshore software development company. Only an expert can help you come up with an expert solution.